


Twist

by thetreesgrowodd



Category: Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles - All Media Types
Genre: Babysitting, Kid Fic, Multi, Sibling Incest
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2012-10-10
Updated: 2012-10-10
Packaged: 2017-11-16 00:30:56
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 2,464
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/533490
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/thetreesgrowodd/pseuds/thetreesgrowodd
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>Shadow is unusual, and her teacher is concerned. Mike, still trying to deal with the recent chaos in his life, feels guilty.</p>
<p>Image comics universe. Spoilers for Mirage's <i>City at War</i> series, and the TMNT Image comics up to issue 8.</p>
            </blockquote>





	Twist

"They can't come to the phone right now." Mike glanced up at Shadow, happily playing with her toys, and listened to the unfamiliar voice on the other end of the line. "Oh, you're Miss Sommerfeld!"

"Miss Sunny Field!" Shadow echoed.

"Yeah, she talks about you all the time. Me? I'm a family friend. Mike." His smile faded. "Oh yeah? So, she talks about me too. Well, is there a message I can give April and Casey? Oh. Ok. I'll let 'em know. Thanks."

"Why did Miss Sunny call?"

"She just wants to talk to your mom and dad. About you." Mike lowered his voice and took on a conspiratorial, teasing tone. "Did you do something bad today?"

"No," Shadow said, serious and wide eyed. Mike knew it was true. She wasn't a troublemaker in the least, not even one for harmless pranks and mischief. Knowing the group that was raising her — Casey and Mike in particular — it was a miracle.

*

Star Trek was on. Mike was sprawled on the sofa, his plastron a snack tray. He loved his basement room — It was comfortable and colorful and childproofed, his nunchucks and shuriken gathering dust atop a tall bookcase. Klunk would have loved to sit up there. His wrist automatically twisted its way through nunchaku exercises, although he only held the remote control.

He was aware of Leo before he spoke, but let his brother 'slip in unnoticed.'

"You're going to get fat, Mike."

Mike grinned at Leo, who stepped into the flickering light of the TV. "Good. I've earned it, don't ya think? An easy retirement."

Leo perched on the arm of the sofa, in full gear. "'Retirement?' Did you have a job you didn't tell me about?"

Mike poked Leo's thigh with his toe. "We worked hard enough? All those years?" He couldn't keep a doubtful note out of his voice.

Leo caught his foot and held it on his lap to stop the jabbing toes. "We worked very hard, but that was only the beginning."

"Nope, I'm done. Time to settle down."

"At such a ripe old age?" Leo shook his head. "Come train with me tonight. You don't have to train back up to where you were. Just maintain what you still have."

Could one un-become a ninja? Sure, he could call himself an ex-ninja, but that wasn't like undoing it completely. He really didn't want to train, not even if it meant spending time with Leo. He kind of hoped Leo was in the mood for sex instead.

Mike freed his foot and traced his toe up the line on Leo's front. "Stay here with me. I made brownies."

"Mike," Leo sighed.

Mike tried to wrap his legs around Leo and pull him down onto the couch, but Leo slipped away and stood up. He caught Mike's ankles in each hand and crossed them neatly, setting his feet on the arm of the couch where he had been sitting.

"I'm going out," Leo announced.

"Come back when you're done?"

Leo paused in the door, with the light from the TV illuminating half of his face. "I love you." A non-answer. Then he was gone before Mike could draw breath to reply. Typical.

*

"I called Miss Sun— Miss Sommerfeld this morning, during recess. She's worried about Shadow…" April trailed off and glanced at Shadow's half closed door.

"She's asleep. I'm positive," Mike said, worried about whatever it was that April didn't want Shadow to hear. There was so much stuff now, ADD and drugs to help kids focus and Asperger's.

"She's worried that Shadow is fascinated by violence. She asked me about possible influences at home."

"Oh," Mike said. "Oh." He gripped the back of a kitchen chair. He cast around for what to feel and what to say. "Raised by us and being kidnapped and all..."

"She's not acting out," April said, as if reassuring herself. "It's just, the topics she picks when they play make-believe. Little comments she makes. Drawings."

"Of us?"

April pressed her lips together.

"Yeah, she draws us sometimes, I know she does," Mike said, in answer to his own question. "It's so hard to get her to understand that she shouldn't."

"It's not just that. Miss Sommerfeld knows we have an unconventional family here. So many kids do in one way or another. But she says Shadow is confused, and is saying some strange things. She asked me questions about Shadow's home life, how many people are living here, and how she knows about all these different kinds of weapons."

"It's our fault," Mike said quickly. "Oh God."

"No." April caught his hand. "I'm not blaming you."

"You should! Of course it's our fault!"

"No. Mike, listen to me. It's not your fault. It's mine and Casey's and Splinter's."

'Splinter's fault.' Mike went cold inside. "What? Splinter didn't have that much contact with her before..."

"No, but he raised you guys. Oh, Mike, I'm not finding fault with him." She rubbed her forehead. "Give me a little time to think about this, ok? Casey and I are going to meet with Miss Sommerfeld tomorrow. I don't know what we'll decide to do, or if we'll try to make any changes. It's too early to worry, ok?"

*

"You told Mike before you told me? I'm her father!"

Casey's voice woke Mike up. He crept to his door and opened it a crack.

"Look, don't get me wrong, I love the guys," Casey said. "And they saved her — I just went to pieces, and they got her back. I owe them everything. It's just —"

April said something in a lower voice.

"April, it's just everything that's been going on with them! Something new, some crazy life twist every week. Don and Splinter. And Mike and Leo dropped this bombshell on us about what they're doing, like we're supposed to congratulate them! Shadow needs stability, not —"

Mike shut the door, sensing that Casey was gearing up for a long rant. He willed himself not to listen.

It was late. Leo wasn't coming tonight.

*

Mike sat at the foot of April and Casey's bed and watched April twist her hair up tight in a bun. April and Casey were about to leave to meet with Shadow's teacher. Mike didn't know much about women's fashion, but he could see she was trying to make herself look competent and responsible.

*

Mike unscrewed the lid from the pickle jar. Luckily for him, Shadow had never been a picky eater, even after his many culinary experiments. She carried plastic cups and bowls to the table carefully.

"Shad Doe-eyes, Shad Doe-eyes," he sang as he prepared dinner. Her high voice from the next room joined in his silly, familiar song. "Up in the skies with the staaaaars, My Shad with the Doe-eyes!"

"So now what is the prince going to do?" she asked, returning to the kitchen.

Mike grinned. He had been bouncing ideas for his new sci-fi novella off of Shadow all week, and it had almost all come together, thanks to her. If it actually got published, he'd dedicate it to her.

"Well, he and his men have to fight their way out of the city. Or maybe they sneak out through the sewers. Even on other planets, all the really good cities have really good sewers, you know. Probably with robot sentries," he told her.

"You got tired of the sewers."

"Never! That was Raph and Don. They went to live in a tree."

Shadow giggled. "They don't live in a tree."

"But they could. They could grow wings so they could live in a tree."

She gave him an appraising look. "Then why don't you and Leo live there too?"

"We're scared of heights! Especially Leo!" Mike added in a stage whisper.

*

After he put Shadow to bed, Mike made dinner for April and Casey. Nothing fancy, just tortellini and some steamed zucchini. Having it ready for them was the least he could do, and it kept him busy. It wasn't that late yet, but it was getting dark so early these days. It was so quiet. Mike imagined he was the only person left in the whole world.

That's what it was like sometimes. He'd been a conjoined quadruplet in all but the physical sense. Then the others had been cut away.

April and Casey came home to a nice dinner, and Mike lying on Shadow's floor. They didn't disturb him, and so he didn't have to pretend to wake up.

*

"I've been looking online for picture books about, you know, alternative families. I ordered some, but there's not a lot out there." Mike leaned forward, elbows on his knees.

"And they wouldn't even begin to cover… us. Everything that's going on," Leo said

"Worst part is, Shadow knows something is going on. She asked me if she was in trouble."

Leo stood right in front of Mike, sharing his personal space. Coming from Leo, that gesture was as good as a hug.

"I feel responsible," Leo said.

"April said she doesn't blame us, but she blames herself." Mike couldn't tell Leo she blamed Splinter for causing it indirectly too. He'd flip out.

"She chose this lifestyle, to some extent," Leo said. "She wasn't responsible for bringing Shadow into this, but she chose to associate with us and Casey, even knowing about all the fighting we do."

"Did," Mike corrected. "I meant what I said, Leo, I'm done with it. Fighting, training, everything." He leaned his head against Leo's plastron.

"I know. But I'm not sure we'll ever be free of it. There may always be a need for it." He rested his hand on Mike's head lightly. "Didn't the kidnapping convince you of that?"

Mike shivered. "What if it's too late? What if we've already screwed up her mind?" He stared at Leo's plastron. "Remember the nightmares?"

"I know she had some."

Mike shook his head. "You weren't here every night, like I was. And it wasn't all about what happened to her either. Some of it was about us. You know, she can't stand to be in a room with Donnie anymore, and she won't look at Raph's face, even when he has the hockey mask on. Getting her to understand about you and me being together was a breeze compared to all that, even if she picked up on April and Casey's uneasiness about it."

There were footsteps outside his door and Mike stiffened. He'd been dreading this. There was a pause, then a knock at the door. Part of him wanted to hide behind Leo, just like he'd hidden from April and Casey all day. Instead he stood up and opened the door. Casey fidgeted in the hall.

"Mike." Casey noticed Leo and nodded at him, then focused on Mike. "I wanted to tell you how things went with Shadow's teacher yesterday."

"Ok," Mike said, his mouth dry.

"Well, it turned out it wasn't really even a thing." Casey slid both hands into his back pockets and stood there, too still. "She just wanted to meet us, see what was behind Shadow's stories. We told her we were a bit too into our Bruce Lee movies, but that we wouldn't let her watch them anymore. And we said that you're a martial artist and she's seen you practice. Put a positive spin on it, like."

"Oh."

"She didn't think we were bad parents after all. And April set me straight in advance about getting mad at somebody who was only looking out for Shad. And anyway, about the whole violence thing... when I saw this, I knew I couldn't blame you guys."

Casey opened a folder of Shadow's crayon drawings. The one on top was of a figure holding hockey sticks in each hand. "She drew me with my weapons too, but the teacher just thought I like sports. It was the same exact thing — it just looked different. So from now on, we keep Shadow completely — and I mean one hundred percent — separate from all of it. Yeah?"

"Yeah."

"Here." Casey pushed the folder into Mike's hands. "For you."

"For me? No, you should keep them."

Casey shrugged. "Shadow made them for you. I'm just second fiddle."

Touched, Mike accepted it.

"Well. I'll get out of here. I'm sure you guys want to bonk or whatever," Casey said.

Mike just grinned. "Yup."

"Feh. I can't even figure out how the two of you do — whatever it is you do," Casey said, shrugging cavalierly as he walked away. "And believe me — I don't want to know!"

Mike shut the door, relieved, and turned to see that Leo had his hands over his face.

"I'm still not sure we should have told them," Leo said, muffled.

"Yeah. Even now, I dunno if they get it. But it's not in me to hide things. I can't live with people and hide things from them." Mike joined him on the couch.

Leo dropped his hands. "I know," he said, with meaning.

Together they flipped through the drawings that Shadow had made. Each one pressed a different button. Splinter, all brown fur squiggles. April wearing an unlikely princess dress. Swords and a man with guns. A confused mass that could only have been Don. Raph, his face a dark jumble, three lines coming from each fist to represent sais. A winged woman with stars behind her — Gabrielle. Mike and Leo, their hands empty of weapons, with hearts all around them. Mike wondered if they represented how Shadow felt about them, or how she imagined they felt for each other.

"I doubt anyone would have suspected we're not human, based on this," Leo commented.

"Nope. Just two guys in matching green tracksuits. Still, she got your smile just right."

Leo looked at the drawing closer. "But I'm not..."

"Exactly." Mike kissed his cheek.

"Mikey."

Mike set the drawings safely aside, then straddled Leo's thighs, facing him.

"Mikey," Leo repeated, but with a different voice.

*

Later, when Leo was sleeping, Mike slipped out of bed. At his desk, he flipped through Shadow's drawings again, freely letting them evoke what they would in him. Channeling the bittersweet feelings, he began to write, 'There are many different kinds of families in the world...'

*

It was nearly dawn when Mike wrote, 'To Doe-eyes with love,' with his good calligraphy pen. He fanned the ink to dry it, then closed the handmade book of Shadow's pictures and his words. He left the crumpled scraps of paper, scissors and glue on the desk, and put the book safely on a shelf, to wrap and give to her later.

As long as they loved Shadow, and did their best for her, and learned from their mistakes, wouldn't that be enough?

He slid under the covers, next to Leo.


End file.
